Ed got his transplant yesterday!

September 11, 2001

Hi All,

We got the call Sunday night at 9:30 pm that they had a liver for

Ed! So we got there at midnight and he went into surgery yesterday

morning about 9 am. The surgery was difficult and long (about 10

hours). This is the first chance I've had to email anyone since

Sunday night and I'm only here a few minutes before I go back to the

hospital. There have been a couple of complications, although the

liver itself is doing great - it's from a young and healthy donor.

Problem #1 - they told us that because Ed has had some prior

surgeries there was a lot of scar tissue and it took them a while (3

hours) just to get to the old liver! Also, he has ulcerative colitis

which is making his intestines swell up and they don't want to risk

doing the smaller connections of bile ducts until the swelling goes

down. They plan to finish this on Thursday. So he will stay in the

ICU until he goes back in for surgery on Thursday.

Problem #2 - this morning they woke us up (me and Ed's sister) and

told us he had some bleeding overnight and wanted permission to open

him up again to see where the site of the bleeding was. It went well

and they found the site and stitched it up.

I saw Ed today for the first time since Sunday night. He is sleeping

with tons of tubes sticking out of him. It's scary but I know it's

only temporary. With all of today's events with terrorism they tell

us that all surgeries have been cancelled (including a liver

transplant that was scheduled for today). So we are blessed that Ed

got his transplant yesterday. They are shipping most of their blood

to NY where they really need it. If you can, please donate blood

this week, it would help.

I'm going to try and get a laptop to bring with me to the hospital

since there isn't any access to the internet there. I'll try to stay

in contact with you all!

Colleen, if you'd like to stop by we'll be on 4North. We have a

small room reserved for us on the floor. If you'd like to try and

reach me, you might be able to at this cell phone number: 401-580-

2231.

Thanks for all of your prayers.....

Love,

Gracie

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